Paycock Press

Paycock Press, named for Sean O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock, was founded in 1976 to publish Gargoyle Magazine, a DC-based international literary magazine. The press went into
hibernation in 1990. When the magazine was revived in 1997, we began
talking about starting to publish books once again.

New titles:

Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Womenfrom Paycock Press, a new anthology of fiction by Washington, DC-area women, is now available.

Cover image: "Copper Head," by Sheep Jones

$18.95 464 pp
ISBN 9780931181351

"There is nothing parochial here in Amazing Graces: Yet Another Collection of Fiction by Washington Area Women. Not in terms of place nor of gender. This is quite simply a remarkable collection of contemporary fiction dense with real life and more. Dive in!!!!"

—Frances Driscoll, author of Talk to Me and The Rape Poems

"Amazing Graces is absolutely consuming. I was transported by the worries of a teenage girl in a tough inner-city school, a woman desperate to break up with her therapist, someone who loses his sight and makes sense of the world. These stories are raw and inviting, painful enough to read, yet often endearingly funny. A mother in ‘Floating’ says, ‘You know, honey, there’s something I want to tell you, but I don’t want to upset you. Do you think you’ll be upset?’ It’s a question I might ask the reader of this collection. You are going to go to a wig shop in these pages; you are going to walk into a room of Kennedy lookalikes, and people wearing Sarah Palin masks. Take nothing for granted and get ready to be surprised."

—Marti Leimbach, author of Dying Young and The Man From Saigon

"In this amazing anthology, you will find depth and range in stories taking place from Brazil to New Orleans, London to New York to L.A., from Maryland’s Eastern Shore to the other side of the grave – and, of course, Washington. You will find humor, irony, rage, sorrow, ghost stories and love stories. You will find kids who rebel and grow, and kids who don’t. You will find women who face pregnancies, abortions and adoptions; mothers who love their children and mothers who drive them crazy; wives who cope with adultery, and wives who confess it. Mostly, you will find real people made of flesh and blood, bone and heart. What you will not find is politics, or politicians (except for a fantasized Dick Cheney in retirement). Thus, this is a guide to the real capital, stretching far beyond the Capitol dome into the real world and beautifully rendered by gifted Washington women with art, intelligence – and grace."